It's been SO long since I have had time to write on my blog! The past year and a half has been an absolute whirlwind ... and the best kind! In January 2017 I met the man who I would marry only 5 months later. He's the absolute love of my life! Eight months later we found out we were pregnant :) I'm due on October 1 with a little girl and we couldn't be happier!
In the midst of all that my husband and I have managed to sell 2 houses and buy 1 house; I've learned how to be a dog mom to the sweetest and most handsome 80-pound golden retriever that ever existed; and my husband and I have learned (and continue to learn!) what it's like to be married, which is no small feat!
Grateful doesn't even begin to describe how I've felt the past year and a half. The Lord has truly done exceedingly abundantly above all that I could have even thought to ask. But with everything going on, I took a break from blogging.
Having said that, I hope to get back into the habit of regularly writing (at least until the baby is born!). So here is my first post in a long time.
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The women’s Bible study I attend at my church is doing a study in the Book of Exodus. And one of the things that has stuck out to me so far is how much I can relate to Moses’ reaction when God tells him to go back to Egypt and demand the release of the Hebrews: “Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent — either in the past or recently or since you have been speaking to your servant — because my mouth and my tongue are sluggish” (Exod. 4:10).
He makes a pretty good case! Wouldn’t you think the Creator of the universe would send His very best orator to speak to the most powerful ruler in Egypt on His behalf and not a shepherd with what was most likely a stuttering problem? But God responded to Moses, “Who placed a mouth on humans? Who makes a person mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go! I will help you speak and I will teach you what to say” (vv. 11-12), or as the ESV translates verse 12, “Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth.”
I can’t even imagine the panic Moses must have felt. God was calling him to do the very thing — speak in public — that he felt the least qualified to do. In fact, he had a particular deficiency in that area. Which is why Moses begged, “Oh, my Lord, please send someone else” (v. 13, ESV).
Can anyone else relate to Moses? Has God called you to do the very thing you fear the most, whether it’s singing on your church’s worship team, leading a Bible study, or serving in a particular way you feel less than qualified for?
At one point in my life, I thought I would rather die than speak in public. You’ve probably heard that people fear public speaking more than death, and that was true for me! But God made it clear that there were going to be times when He was calling me to die to self and obey Him. And as I stepped out in obedience, God really did enable me. And, boy, did I die to my own pride and vanity in those instances! But in my weakness, God made Himself known.
Sometimes I think God chooses the weakest people in a certain area and calls them to be leaders in exactly that area just so He can display His power and glory all the more. (Have you ever noticed that in God’s economy it’s not the people clamoring for position that usually get it? It’s the people who don’t want it!)
A good example of God calling the weak is the 12 disciples Jesus chose to follow Him. Acts 4:13 says, “Now when [the religious council] saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus” (ESV, emphasis added). There was no other explanation for these uneducated fishermen to speak with such wisdom and authority other than they had been with Jesus. He got all the glory.
God isn’t calling us to be perfect before we serve; He’s calling us to be obedient. He’s calling us to lay down our pride and follow Him to those places where we feel the most inadequate. And as we do, He will make Himself known.